humor

Every time I install a new free app, I wonder about exactly how its creators intend to make money. Am I going to see a bunch of ads? Are they going to sell me something? Are they going to sell me to someone?

As a parent, I read a lot of children’s books. Each time I pick up one of these literary masterpieces, I can’t help but stare at amazement at the words in front of me. It’s hard to believe that such a delightful work of art was…

There are many, many people online who like to comment on things. A few are lucid, most are harmless, but some are… Well, let’s just say “not very nice”.

The Lean Startup movement has inspired many budding entrepreneurs to build great companies which solve real problems. It has been responsible for many stories of entrepreneurial passion, dedication, and ultimate success. This is one…

What if you work in a place that doesn’t need to do A/B testing of the latest feature set and isn’t driven by competition to deliver a new capability every other week? What if you work for the dreaded “Enterprise”? Should you still do…

With 2012 coming to a close, I wanted to take a moment to review another year in blogging.

One of my favorite things to do is write satirical articles on various technology topics. Quite often, the first thing I come up with is a funny headline. Then, through the magic of non-procrastination, some of those headlines get…

Brothers and Sisters, I’ve come here today to preach the word of the mighty RESTa as revealed to us by the Great Profit Fielding, blessed be his dissertation.

Our technology team been forever searching for a good way to capture knowledge (things like discussions, ideas, tips & tricks, technical documentation, etc). Seems simple, yet a good system to capture all this knowledge proved to be…

BREAKING NEWS: In an effort to increase public awareness of its recent IPO, Facebook has just announced a massive advertising campaign using Google’s AdWords platform

Do you frequently find yourself arguing with people who are more informed and/or smarter than you? Prove Me Right’s unique service can help!

“Hi Mike, I just wanted to once again apologize for yesterday’s code review. I said and did some things I’m not very proud of…”

Functional programming has been all the rage lately, yet surprisingly few have heard about an intriguing alternative known as Dysfunctional (or FUctional) programming.

BREAKING NEWS – A previously unknown book of quatrains by Nostradamus appears to predict key breakthroughs in the field of information technology.

Below is an excerpt from an interview with a disenfranchised systems administrator. All identifies have been kept anonymous to protect the innocent.

Solutions of the “magical” variety go out of their way to hide (obfuscate?) the underlying implementation. They present the developer with a Faustian bargain: I’ll make it easy for you to get things done so long as you don’t question…

Since I had so much fun writing about comment spam before, I just had to do it again. This time, I thought it would be interesting to see which posts were the most popular with spammers. The results might surprise you.

WASHINGTON D.C. – Yet another fight over our nation’s technical debt in underway in Washington. Obama administration will soon request an increase of 1.2 trillion to a limit which currently stands at 15.194 trillion man hours.

A new computer virus called KaBlueE is spreading havoc around the internet by re-installing IE6 on infected machines. The timing of this pandemic is especially devastating in light of the fact that IE6 usage has finally dropped below…

GoDaddy, a leading domain registrar and internet piranha announced that it is withdrawing support for Syria, red light cameras, and Justin Bieber.

When first I started blogging about a year ago, my primary concern was to “not get lazy and stop writing”. Yet, somewhat surprisingly (and in spite of my strong natural tendency to “kick back”), I continued writing all through the year.

BREAKING NEWS: Dell is going to re-enter the tablet market with a new line of touchless tablets. From the announcement: “Our new Prespiron line of touchless tablets represents a level of innovation previously unseen in tablet computing.

Do you want to use Test Driven Development in your daily work but lack the necessary motivation? Do you have the nagging feeling that TDD could use more nagging to make you get things done? If this describes you, then you should…

Hot on the heels of the iPhone 4S and a rumored TV, Apple is apparently building a car powered by its revolutionary Siri technology

For far too long now I have sat idly by as the NoSQL movement spread across our industry. The time has come to stand up to the scourge of NoSQL. Today, I am calling on developers everywhere to join a new movement dedicated to bringing…

BREAKING NEWS: Google just announced a brand new language called Zoom aimed to replace English. Here’s a quote from the official announcement: “With Go, we were able to create a better C++. With Dart, we re-imagined JavaScript. With…

Do you ever wish that you could write awesome client side code while using a familiar syntax? Do you want to leverage powerful concepts like closures and prototypical inheritance? How about using 3rd party libraries without conflicts?…

In the spirit of responsible blogging, I would like to correct a few mistakes I made in some recent posts.

In a recent poll about most hated jobs, Director of Information Technology topped the list. That’s right, IT Directors hate their jobs more than anyone else. More than garbage collectors, executioners, telemarketers, investment…

What a crazy week it was on the stock exchanges. Huge swings up and down, see-sawing back and forth, massive losses followed by massive gains, unbridled despair followed by unbridled joy, and so on and so forth.

On Friday, the ratings agency Standards and Poor’s downgraded US debt to AA+. So far, it is the only ratings agency to do so. Right afterwords, it came to light that S&P made a mathematical mistake in calculating future deficits. S&P…

Before I started blogging, I was only peripherally aware of an internet phenomenon known as comment spam.

Pair programming is a somewhat controversial, highly counter-intuitive agile practice. In a nutshell, it’s two people working on the same thing, using just one computer, at the same time. It seems crazy that it would work at all, much…

I don’t like calling code bases legacy. The word “legacy” makes people think of Ivy League schools, vintage leather couches, and Dad’s old bottle of Scotch. It rarely elicits the kind of feeling of pain and despair one normally gets…

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Software guys have great sayings. This may be surprising to some since we don’t usually associate mastery of the spoken word with geekdom. Nonetheless, there are some gems out there and I’ve compiled a short list of my favorites.…

I decided create a series of comic strips about software development. All artwork is done on an iPad using Autodesk’s awesome Sketchbook Pro app and a Boxwave Stylus. Enjoy! You may also like: DoodlingGeek Comic: Daily StandupsGeek…

There are many qualities that make a good engineer. This post is not about those. Instead, it’s about qualities that make me cringe and run away.

I really like Safari Books Online. As one colleague put it, it’s “the gift of unlimited knowledge“. For those who aren’t familiar, Safari is an online subscription-based book service. You pay a monthly fee to get access to a boat load…